Everyone who has repented and given their life to Jesus Christ, I believe, recognizes through their own experience that it is the Holy Spirit who works to draw a person to Jesus Christ. In the previous writings of this series, I shared how God must first call you to Himself. Then, the Holy Spirit awakens you to your need for a Savior and enables you to come to a point of repentance with a desire to surrender to God. Following are the experiences I had as the Holy Spirit drew me to Jesus in August and September of 2001.

What is important to understand is that each and every person is born with the desire to sin. This is referred to as a sinful nature that we have all inherited from "Adam." Because of the bondage of this desire to sin, no person is capable of coming to God on his or her own. The Holy Spirit is essential to this process. The Holy Spirit must draw a person to Christ and prepare (enable) the person to receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

Declaring God to be The Creator
In early August of 2001, I was driving south on Highway #169 in the Minnesota River Valley, and, for some reason, I was arguing with myself as to whether or not God really exists. Right then, I came to a curve in the road and was able to view a beautiful scene of a hillside of trees, a partly cloudy sky, a small stream and the prairie stretching off far to the west, all in one long glance. I think God magnified the beauty of this scene at that particular moment. I said out loud, I know God exists. All of this could not have just happened.

I believe for God's reason, He wanted me to declare Him to be "The Creator." This was the initial experience God used to launch and draw me into a focus on the literal truth of God's Account of Creation in Genesis 1. I have been inspired and led by the Holy Spirit in this area. I will share more about this emphasis in future writings.

A Need to Hear the Message of Salvation
By middle August, a longing to return to church was becoming stronger and stronger. I wanted to get back to going to church. Reminder, I had been away from church for about seven years. There was such a desire rising up in me to hear the message of salvation in Jesus Christ. To hear TRUTH! I knew I just could not go back to the church I had been a member of for 27 years. A church that was more social than spiritual. I wanted to hear God's truth, the good news of Jesus Christ.

Actually, I had started my young granddaughter in their Sunday School program. She had been going to Sunday School for two years. But, now I wanted and needed to return to church myself.

I considered the different churches in my town, and decided to try a Lutheran Brethren Church. This church had parishioners who had come from other area churches and from different denominations in search of a more biblically based church experience.

On the first Sunday after Labor Day, my granddaughter and I attended this church. After the service, a session for those interested in becoming a member was conducted. A person seeking membership is required to attend a number of classes that teach what the doctrine of the Lutheran Brethren Church is. I sat way in the back of the room and listened to what the pastor had to say. I was relatively satisfied with what I heard. So, my granddaughter and I started attending this church.

September 11, 2001
It is doubtful that any of us will ever forget 9/11 and the horror that took place that day. This event brought the Second Coming of Christ into my mind where it has stayed ever since. After this event, churches around the country saw a great rise in numbers of people coming to church. Many became concerned with their eternity, about the world coming to an end and about God's wrath and judgment.

God used this horrific event with me as the initial experience of drawing my attention to the end times and to the "rapture" of The Church. This led to the Holy Spirit giving me seven dreams about end of days events. Four of these dreams had spoken messages accompany them. I will share testimony on these revelations in future writings.

Sense of Death
As the days of September continued to pass by, I had a greater and greater sense that I was dying. I remember standing in the middle of my kitchen that September and saying " I would have died from a heart attack by now if it wasn't for the fact that I am taking blood thinners”. (In February of 2000, I had a stroke and was placed on a blood thinner.} I was experiencing this strange feeling in my lower abdomen and a sense of death was hanging over me.

Drawn to Christian TV Programs
In the middle of September, instead of just passing over Christian programs on cable TV stations, I started to be drawn to these programs. My hunger to hear the salvation story and to be told truth kept increasing.

It was at the close of one of these programs that I called out to God in repentance and in surrender to Him. This born again experience and my reconciliation with God will be the focus of next week’s writing.